Europe pays tribute to victims of the Holocaust

LONDON (AP) -- Europe recalled one of its darkest eras Saturday as ceremonies from London to Lithuania marked the 56th anniversary of the Auschwitz death camp's liberation.

Britain and Italy held their first-ever Holocaust memorial days, while survivors, spiritual leaders and politicians across the continent pledged to remember a grim historical lesson about the consequences of intolerance.

''Not everyone who survived has the strength to share,'' said Auschwitz survivor Hedi Fried, speaking at a forum in Stockholm, Sweden. ''We who can have an extra obligation. ... We owe it to our murdered parents, the 6 million Jews, 500,000 Gypsies and countless homosexuals, Russians and Poles who died.''

Britain's national Holocaust Memorial Day involved ceremonies across the country and a London service that honored Nazi victims as well as those of other 20th-century genocides.

The guest list for the memorial at Westminster Central Hall in London included Prince Charles, Prime Minister Tony Blair, the archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster and Britain's chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks.

In Germany, a recent rise in violent attacks on minorities gave added resonance to the annual Day of Remembrance for Victims of Nazism. Parliament President Wolfgang Thierse marked the day by issuing a warning about the dangers of neo-Nazism.